LiW Calling lawyers/law students

[ravengirl]

If you were planning to get married during law school, when do you think is the best year and time of year to get married?

 

[gwendolyn]

I'm not a lawyer or a law student, but I was just the maid of honour for a friend who is now a lawyer and just got out of law school a year ago. She got engaged a couple of years ago, but said (and I quote, more or less), "I can't possibly do my last year of law school, study for the bar AND plan a wedding! Wedding AFTER law school and bar exam!"

Well, ok, I think she used a few more expletives than that, but you get the idea. It terrified her to think of having her wedding during her 3rd year or the summer after, since most of the summer is spent studying. No idea if that helps you or not, but that's all I know about weddings and law school.

 

[Sassee]

I am a lawyer - but in Australia. Most Aussie universities have law programs at undergrad level, so its a different system here.

Is it a 3 year program and if so, what year are you currently in? Do you know what each semester entails? Maybe there is a semester where the subjects/study is less full on?

I''d be thinking the same as Gwen however - is there any way of postponing wedding plans until after you''ve completed the course? I''d imagine that it would be a pretty big ask to be doing such intense study and plan a wedding!

 

[ravengirl]

Gwendolyn: Thanks for the insight. So, planning during the third year=not a good idea.

Sassee: I''m actually in my senior year of undergrad, and will be attending law school next fall. My BF and I are starting to talk about engagement, and were thinking about possibly getting married after the first or second year of law school. I think we''d both rather not wait four more years, until I''d be completely finished with school, to even start planning...

I wonder if it would make more sense to get married during a winter break than a summer break, as most law students try to get employment/internships during the summers....?

 

[gwendolyn]

I think winter break during your 2nd year would probably work out the best. According to my same friend, it takes a little while to get into the groove of law school, so the first semester''s a little tough (of course she was coming from the working a full time job and not an undergrad degree, so it might be less of an adjustment for you, but still, you don''t want to be planning during your first semester of law school--you might not make it to your second if that''s the case unless you''re going to have a very chill wedding!).

So, yeah, the third year should be out because that''s going to be tough with the bar prep and graduating and stuff, and the first year should (probably) be out if you''re doing it in the winter simply because you want to transition smoothly and there''s a LOT of reading and trying to do that while planning a wedding would be really difficult. It''ll probably still be hard to do during the second year, but in my non-expert opinion, that sounds like your best bet to me!

*waits for a lawyer to come in and disagree with everything I''ve said*

 

[FLgirl41]

I am not a law student but my fiance just started his second year of law school. I asked him his advice and he suggests to not do anything during your first year of law school because it is the most time consuming and takes a while to get acclimated to it as well. My fiance wants to be fully involved in the planning of our wedding so we have opted to wait until after he takes the bar to get married.

What I would suggest is to wait until after the bar to get marriend and get as much planning you can the summer before your second year of law school; the summer after your first year law students generally only get clerk jobs and work maybe 40 hours a week. I would then suggest to hold off on all planning during the semesters and plan during winter break and depending on hours of your job during the second summer, plan accordingly. I would make sure all planning is done by winter break of your 3rd year because I hear the prep for the bar takes a lot of time. If you have people helping you plan you could probably get married by winter break of your 3rd year.

Good luck in your last year of undergrad and good luck in Law school!

 

[ice_princess]

I'm in law school but in England. We have undergrad law programmes and I'm starting my 2nd year in Oct. BF and I don't plan to get engaged until after I finish the degree. It's just SUCH hard work doing law I can't even imagine actually planning a wedding etc. because I won't have the inclination to study if there is such a big thing on my mind. I guess that would be where personal discipline comes in but I just don't see it happening that way for me so the way we planned it I have something BIG to look forward to for after the degree but that's just IMO.

 

[gwendolyn]

You could always just elope and save yourself the hassle of planning a giant ''do. Then you could get married during law school and not have it really impact your studies.

 

[musey]

Date: 9/3/2007 10:24:33 AM
Author: gwendolyn
You could always just elope and save yourself the hassle of planning a giant ''do. Then you could get married during law school and not have it really impact your studies.

That''s what I was thinking as well. Or find a venue that offers planning services. Have them to the dirty work, that way you can just show up day of and say "I DO!"

 

[Delster]

I didn''t do law school in the US but I am a lawyer. I''ve done an undergrad law degree (LLB), a postgrad (LLM) and the barrister-at-law degree (BL). The BL I think most closely equates to your JD - lots of small group work, Socratic teaching, take-home assignments etc. The other degrees were much less time-intensive. I couldn''t begin to think of planning a wedding while I was doing the BL. That said, two guys from my year did get married towards the end of the year, but, they were guys... their brides did all the hard work I''m guessing!!!

Gwendolyn and Musey have good suggestions, would either of those work?

And congrats to you for getting into law school! Yay!!!

 

[jakesgirl2]

I am not a law student but my BF is and we have been talking about when we would get married. I know he is planning on proposing some time in the next few months and he just started his second year. He says he would love to get married next summer but he is worried about a number of things, mostly how being married would change his student loan status... I woould be doing most of the wedding planning etc but I think we may just end up waiting until he finishes law school and marry sometime in ''09 although neither of us wants to wait that long

 

[goldenstar]

I'm a third year law student in CA and I just got engaged this April (right after 2nd year Spring exams). We are planning to be engaged for two years and want to get married in Spring of 2009.

My thoughts:

Don't get married during the first year or the summer after. You don't want to be distracted by wedding planning. IMHO, the only goal for the first year is to do as well as you can and make it to your second year. At my school, the bottom 25% is "disqualified", i.e. kicked out. (You can fight your way back in, but that's neither here nor there...)

If you must marry during law school, I think the best time is either winter break of the 2nd year, or the summer following the second year. The summer would be better actually, if you consider that a wedding takes more or less a year to plan-- that would mean you'd have to plan a little during the first year to get married in the winter. Whether or not there's a lot of pressure to get a good job during your second summer depends on what your career goals are and what school you go to. I personally had a fairly mellow summer...

I do know of one person who got married during Spring Break of the 3rd year. I don't know too much about how it went, but it seemed manageable, albeit rushed. Both were law students and they wanted to be married before studying for the bar.

We decided to wait until way after I graduated because I feel like the Fall after the bar exam is too soon. I'd have a lot of wedding thoughts and plans going through my mind during the bar study period. I'm sure it could be done, but I want to fully enjoy the wedding planning and I also don't want to jeopardize my chances of passing the bar. I want to devote myself fully to each event, rather than be stressed about squeezing it all in.

All of this is assuming that you are planning a "full" wedding, not an elopement or something.

A few things to consider:
-Your marital status might affect your student loan eligibility. I don't know anything about this topic, but its definitely something you should research if this is something that matters to you.
-Law Students are generally really POOR. Even if you have a full scholarship or something, there's no way you can work to the point where you're earning a meaningful amount (unless maybe you are a summer associate with a large firm) . Depending on who is paying for the wedding, this might be an obstacle.
-Law school is a MAJOR life change. It will really test your mental and emotional health. Think about if you can handle that coupled with the major life change of marriage.

I hope I haven't made you feel discouraged, I just wanted to convey that law school is SO much different than undergrad. As hard as it is, I am truly happy to be here. Back to studying....

 

[ravengirl]

Wow, everyone, thanks so much for the input! A lot to think about...

Jakesgirl and goldenstar: Can you elaborate at all about how student loans could change? That''s the one thing that stood out and made me the most nervous.

 

[goldenstar]

*DISCLAIMER* You have to do your own research because things will vary from case to case.

I just popped by my financial aid office because I was curious also.

In a nutshell, when you are married your spouse''s income is reported on the financial aid application. Thus, their income becomes your income. Since one of you will be working and the other won''t, there shouldn''t be too much of an impact since the income will be on the low side for two people. However, if your spouse is rolling in dough your ability to get subsidized Federal loans might be affected. Subsidized loans are those for which the Govt pays the interest for you while you are in school. The annual limit for this type of loan is $8,500 but don''t quote me on that. You will probably still be able to get unsubsidized Federal loans and private loans. Reporting your spouse''s income on loan applications may have other implications, which is why you need to do more research. For example, maybe the spouse''s credit score will affect the interest rates on private loans. I don''t know if this is the case, but it crossed my mind as a possibility.

Also, based on a student''s income the Govt calculates the expected family contribution. This is the amount that the Govt thinks you can pay out of your own pocket. If the student''s income is increased because their spouse has income, the student''s family contribution might go up.

If you have already been accepted to a school, contact their financial aid office and they will give you the most accurate information for your specific situation.

Wow I sound like a public service announcement...

 

[ravengirl]

Ok, this is what I suspected. However, it shouldn''t be too much of an issue for us. Lucky for me (slight sarcasm) my SO will also be in grad school living off financial aid. So, no real income to throw off my loans.

Thanks again for giving me such a detailed response! I really appreciate it. Helps put a few questions to rest.

 

[jakesgirl2]

In our case, as I work full time, it would mean his contribution would increase A LOT. To the tune of $15,000 a year, after loans! We could not realistically afford that, but that is what they calculated if we were to get married while he was in school. That would be a lot for us to pay in addition to a wedding, all on my salary! We have been investigating ways around this as we would both love to marry in the fall of ''08 or winter ''08-''09. But the more we look at it the more it looks like we will be waiting! I just don''t want the $$$ stress.

 

[blueyes157]

jakesgirl where does your boyfriend go to law school? I bet that is stressful for the 2 of you! Weddings are enough as it is but add in law school! yikes!

 

[LIW13]

I am a lawyer in NYC. Winter Break 3rd year.....no BAR review yet, and Spring courses all electives.
Good luck!!!!!!!!!

 

[jakesgirl2]

He''s in school in Boston... It is stressful but this has ALWAYS been his dream!

He was writing contracts in first grade lol

 

[peridot83]

Probably the best time no matter what law school would be between Winter Break - Spring Break of the third year (most people I know didn''t start studying for the bar until May). You could also do Winter Break - Spring break of the second year.

Another optimal time is August/September of your 3rd year or August after the bar.

If the planner is NOT the one in law school, or if you''re really good at planning...many people get married in August after taking the Bar. (this assumes that you go to law school where you will have a job for after the bar...if you''ll be looking for a job after the bar that would not be ideal!!)